Grief Before Goodbye

When we care deeply for someone, grief can begin long before the goodbye. You might experience sadness, fear, guilt mixed with love and compassion all at once. This practice is here to help you stay present and steady with those emotions as they arise. So let's take a deep breath here and just begin to settle in. So grief can move similar to a wave. It rises, crests, and falls. Our job is not to make the grief or the wave stop, but learn how to ride the waves. So take a moment to notice the emotion most present for you, and notice where you can sense it in the body and then see if you can just gently breathe into that space, softening that area and maintaining a gentle focus on the rising and falling of the breath. When the mind wanders, bringing it back to the breath, the body, and the present moment. Sometimes naming how we feel can create space for the emotion to move through us. So as emotions arise, see if you can name them, like this is sadness or this is anger, and just notice what happens when we give it a name. We're not pushing away how we feel or ignoring how we feel, just riding the waves as they come, one breath and one moment at a time. And then taking one last deep breath. And when you're ready, opening your eyes if they were closed....